11. Name

'Bones'

Leonard McCoy was a hell of a lot of things but patient wasn't exactly one of them. The doctor had been a part of Starfleet for a few years and he was getting a little tired of the crap he had to go through on a regular basis. Politics and red tape and whining little cadets were getting on his last nerve and he wasn't sure he was cut out to be a Medical Officer…

"I'm telling you Gary, I DO NOT need a doctor!"

McCoy looked up from his charts to see a couple of young cadets stumbling through the doors of the clinic; a tall dark haired man was struggling with a smaller, light haired kid who obviously didn't want to be there. The taller, and most likely a little older, man was tugging at his friend's arm. "Come on, you've passed out twice. Time to see a doc."

"I've dealt with a head injury before—Gary, I'm fine! I wanna go back to the dorms…"

The man ignored him and turned to a nurse. "My friend needs someone to look over an injury."

The woman hesitated. "We're rather busy right now cadet…"

"Nurse Williams!" McCoy stood up and waved at them. "I'm free."

The cadets came forward, the younger one glaring at him suspiciously. The other man sighed in relief. "I'm Gary Mitchell, this is Jim Kirk. He, being the bonehead he is, cracked his skull on the pavement during lunch. And then, if you'll believe this, he didn't tell anyone!"

"How did you find out?" McCoy was already pulling the glowering man onto an examination table.

"He passed out in our Tactics class." Mitchell was shaking his head. "Idiot."
"Shut up…" Kirk was rubbing at his eyes. "I'm fine, I wanna go back to the dorms."

"You seriously want to put up with Flannagan right now?"

The kid actually paled a little at that but McCoy decided to ignore them and concentrated on getting his gear together. As he picked up his scanner, he looked up to find he was being stared at by a pair of bright hazel eyes. Cadet Kirk smiled slightly. "What's your name?"

"Doctor Leonard McCoy."

"McCoy huh?" Kirk looked thoughtful. "I was under the impression I've met every doctor in this place. You new?"

"I normally take the more serious cases."

The kid's eyes lit up. "You good?"

McCoy glared. "The best."

As he patched the kid up he was granted some silence; Mitchell had wandered off to flirt with a nurse. Suddenly the silence was shattered.

"Right!" Kirk looked pretty smug as he beamed at him. "When I'm a captain, you'll be my CMO."

McCoy cocked an eyebrow at that. "Sorry kid, I have no intention of actually working on one of those death traps y'all call starships."

Kirk shrugged as he stood, shaking his head experimentally. "We'll see."

McCoy stared at him incredulously before looking down at his patient's records. "How is a kid with your medical record planning on getting a captaincy? You'll be fifty before they trust someone like you with a ship."

"Fifty?" This kid had to have the most infectious laugh he'd ever heard. His eyes sparkled as he looked over his shoulder at the doctor. "Hey, I'll be a captain by thirty, you better believe it." He kept walking, waving over his shoulder. "Bye, Bones."

"Bones?" McCoy stared after the cadet.

It took three more meetings in the clinic for Kirk to admit that the nickname was drawn from the old name for doctors: sawbones.

It took five more appointments and three lunches for Kirk to become Jim.

And when, many years later, he got an official request for a transfer to the Enterprise, it wasn't the request that drew him in; it was the small note attached to it and addressed to Bones.

'Mr. Spock'

The Vulcan did not sigh because Vulcans did not sigh. However, Captain James T Kirk was becoming steadily more impossible to ignore. "I have only one name, Captain."

"No last name?" The strange human was hanging onto the edge of the rail near the science station. "Nothing, just Spock?"

"Indeed."

Kirk frowned. "I just…it feels weird calling you Lieutenant Commander Spock knowing I'm essentially calling you by your first name."

"I have no issue with this." Spock finally looked up from his computer. "I have no ego to bruise nor any insecurities that need be tamed by a title."

He'd thought that was the end of it until the Captain began calling him Mr. Spock. It was odd that the captain be so determined, but he allowed it. It after all seemed to matter a great deal to Kirk and for some odd reason that alone was enough.

'Jim'

The first time Bones called him that, instead of Kirk or idiot or fool or kid, he absolutely beamed and the doctor found himself shaking his head.

The first time Spock called him that, he'd just beaten the Vulcan in a game of chess. The man had looked up from the board with wide eyes and smiled so brightly that the Vulcan had been lost for words.

Only a few people on board the Enterprise called him Jim; but they, they counted.